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Guest Author: Julie Lynn Hayes!

Today i’m pleased to welcome Julie Lynn Hayes to my blog! She’s touring to promote her new release Bad Dogs and Drag Queens and is a great sport. Julie has a set of interview questions she asks guests on her blog, and i turned them back around and asked her to answer them for me!

The Questions

You’re marooned on a small island with one person and one item of your choice—who is that person and what item do you have?

Hmmm, I think I’ll choose my daughter, Sarah, and the item is the music to Hamilton on whatever device we can listen to it (let’s just pretend it won’t run out of power). We’ll be entertained indefinitely with listening to the music and engaging in many amusing debates regarding Hamilton and Burr. We’d never be bored.

Which musical would you say best exemplifies your life – and which character in that musical are you?

I think it might be The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and I would be Molly, cause no matter what happens, I keep rising to the top cause I can’t sink!

Take these three words and give me a 100 word or less scene using them: home, insane, grappler

If he thought I was going to just let him into my home, then he was certifiably insane. I don’t care how much he smiled, or how charming he thought he was. I knew the moment I saw him standing in my door way he was trouble. Maybe the grappler that hung from his belt was a dead give-away

Insurance salesmen! There ought to be a law.

You’ve just been let loose in the world of fiction, with permission to do anyone you want. Who do you fuck first and why?

That’s a difficult question. So many men, so little time. I’ll save one answer for my historical crush, and instead I’ll go with the hero of a book series I love, by Mike Carey, called Lucifer. So the answer is Lucifer, because he’s so sexy, and so deep, and he’s got that whole Fallen Angel thing going on.

What is your idea of how to spend romantic time with your significant other?

To be honest, I don’t have one. Just me and my cat. He spends most of his time sleeping, and I spend most of mine on the computer.

When you start a new story, do you begin with a character, or a plot?

Usually I start with a character, and I get into their head, and their story comes out of that. But not always. With Rose and Thorne, I started with a plot, which developed into characters.

If they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?

I think Scarlet Johansson would be a good choice. Not cause she looks like me, but because she’s pretty and feisty and has lots of spirit. Hey, if you’re gonna dream, go for it, right?

Who’s your favorite horror villain and why?

Again, so many choices. So I’ll go with Hannibal Lecter, either book or movie. Great character, and while he is a horror villain, I wouldn’t be afraid of him, because I would have the sense not to be rude. He abhors what he terms “free range” rude people. He is very charming, and yet very deadly, if you get on his bad side.

Do you have an historical crush and if so, who is it?

Yes, thanks for asking. Aaron Burr. I’ve been a Burrite for years, and there is renewed interest in him ever since Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton came out. My daughter and I are doing a lot of reading on the Revolution. She is a Hammie, but my heart belongs to Burr, who is not the villain in the story, not by a long shot.

Is there a story that you’d like to tell but you think the world isn’t ready to receive it?

I’ve told it, the world isn’t ready for it, though. Not until the publishers remove the sexual taboos from their lists of we won’t publish these.

Thanks for having me, Charley!

Blurb:

Vinnie Delarosa and Ethan Thorne are partners—on and off the clock. Federal undercover detectives, they’re part of a covert task force designed to promote goodwill between the feds and local authorities. They lend an unobtrusive helping hand wherever it’s needed. No credit required.

Vinnie and Ethan work primarily in the Southeast region of the United States and live together in Richmond, Virginia. A mugger problem brings them to Roanoke, where Vinnie is thrown out as bait to catch the man who’s been snatching purses in a city park, but they end up with more than they bargained for. Why is Vinnie always the one who has to wear the dress? Ethan says it’s because Vinnie looks much prettier in a skirt. How can he argue with that?

Expecting to return to Richmond afterward, Vinnie and Ethan find themselves assigned a new case instead. They are to go undercover at The Stroll, one of the biggest gay nightclubs in Roanoke. Someone is terrorizing both the customers and the performers. Could they be dealing with a hate crime? Someone has to protect the drag queens of Roanoke, so it’s Vinnie and Ethan to the rescue!

The author is donating 10% of the royalties from this book to No Kid Hungry. Visit nokidhungry.org for more information about this organization.

Excerpt:

“Remind me again whose stupid idea this lipstick was,” I huffed beneath my breath. Without thinking, I licked my lips. They felt greasy, and tasted even worse. I forced myself not to grimace, afraid it might crack the foundation I’d slathered on my face.

“Fuck you,” I growled. “You should be doing this, not me, and you know it. I did it last time.”

And the time before that. And the time before that. Wait, did I detect a pattern here?

“What I know is you look better in a skirt than I do. And you look damn good out of it, too.”

My cheeks suffused with heat at Ethan’s words. Luckily the darkness hid a multitude of sins, my embarrassment being the least of them. Hopefully, no one else was listening—I knew I’d never hear the end of it. Just what I needed—to be the object of ridicule of the Roanoke PD.

I pulled a compact from the purple paisley cloth purse slung over my shoulder and flipped open the mirror so I could assess my surroundings. I couldn’t see a damn thing. I growled again. I’d have to move closer to the half-assed excuse for a light this park possessed if I wanted to scope out the situation. The city fathers had been too cheap to install proper lighting, which is why they had this mugging problem to begin with.

“What’s wrong, Vinnie?” Ethan’s concern came through my earpiece loud and clear. He might aggravate me some of the time—or most of the time—but he always had my back.

“Nothing,” I muttered as I wobbled toward the light. These heels were ridiculous. How did women do it? I’d just gained an all-new respect for the fairer sex. They made it seem so effortless, while I possessed all of the grace of a wounded water buffalo. I’d tried opting for flats, but Ethan had nixed the idea. Said they wouldn’t go with the skirt. Plus he said the heels made my legs look longer.

Julie Lynn Hayes first began publishing short stories and poetry in the 1990’s, when it was a different ballgame altogether, and Ebooks hadn’t been dreamed of yet. That changed in 2010 with the acceptance of her first romance novel. She’s come a long way since that first book appeared, and is finding the journey a very educational one.

She lives in St. Louis with her daughter Sarah and her cat Ramesses. She often writes of two men finding true love and happiness in one another’s arms, and is a great believer in the happily ever after. She likes to write in different genres, to stretch herself in order to see what is possible. Her greatest challenge is to be told something can’t be done—she feels compelled to do it.

When she isn’t writing, she enjoys crafts, such as crocheting and cross stitch, needlepoint and knitting, and she loves to cook, spending time watching the Food Network. Her favorite chef is Geoffrey Zakarian. Her family thinks she’s a bit off, but she doesn’t mind. Marching to the beat of one’s own drummer is a good thing, after all. Her published works can be found at Dreamspinner Press, eXtasy Books, and Wayward Ink Press.